1 Timothy 6
6
Honouring Masters
1 Let all who are under the yoke as slaves regard their own masters as worthy of all honour, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be spoken against. 2 And those who have believing masters must not disregard them because they are brothers, but rather they must serve, because those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved.
False Teachers and Greed
Teach and exhort these things. 3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not assent to the sound words* of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, 4 he is swollen with pride, understanding nothing, but has a diseased craving for controversies and disputes about words, from which arise envy, strife, slanders, evil suspicions, 5 constant friction among men,* corrupted in mind and bereft of the truth, thinking that godliness is a means of gain.* 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out, either. 8 However, if we have food and clothing,* we shall be content with these. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a trap* and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, which some, in their eagerness for it, have strayed from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
Instructions for Timothy
11 But you, O man of God, flee these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and confessed the good confession before many witnesses. 13 I charge you, in the presence of God, the One who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you keep the commandment unstained, above reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which He will display at the proper time*—the Blessed One and Only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,* 16 the One who alone has immortality, living in unapproachable light, whom no one among humankind has seen nor is able to see; to whom be honour and eternal might. Amen.
17 Command those who are rich in this present age not to think highly of themselves, nor to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, the One who richly provides us with all things for our* enjoyment. 18 Command them* to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, ready to share, 19 storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
20 O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Turn away from worldly, empty talk and the contradictory arguments of what is falsely called knowledge, 21 which some, professing it, have deviated in regard to the faith. Grace be with you all.*
Notes
3 Greek words that are being sound
5 Or people, as the term is generically understood. So also v. 9
5 Some ancient manuscripts insert the imperative construction Withdraw yourself from such
8 Greek coverings
9 Some ancient manuscripts read a trap of the devil, in order to harmonise the verse with a similar expression in 3:7
15 Greek in their own times/seasons
15 Greek the King of those who are kings and Lord of those who are lords
17 The possessive determiner/adjective our is supplied to the text on contextual considerations for the sake of clarity
18 The imperative construction Command them is supplied to the text on contextual considerations for the sake of clarity
21 Some ancient manuscripts insert Amen at the end of the letter
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Copyright © 2026 Michael Adeyemi Adegbola. This Scripture text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
